I tried something new today. I got up at 4:30 am, thinking I might be able to wake up and accomplish some reading and writing before the rest of the house woke up. So, how did it work out? It was a horrible failure. First, I ended up dozing off while reading until 5 am. Then, at that time, I tried to come to life but just wandered around the house trying to get the dog out of my brain. I had all the lights on in my room, but apparently, my body did not care because I was still able to doze off in my chair.

By 5:30 am, it was time to wake up the rest of the house, and then it was go time. The day did get better as I started doing my usual routine, and once it hit 8:30 am and I was at my desk for my real job, I was good to go. I did manage to get a lot accomplished for work which helped smooth my soul, but I was pretty disappointed that I was not able to get the reading and writing done first thing.

I did get some reading done, and the sheer fact that I have written and posted this means I got my writing done means I did accomplish what I wanted. I’m just not satisfied with not getting it done first thing. Like I wanted to. Now my coach would say I need to give myself some grace, be encouraged that I at least got the things accomplished, and try again. This is sound advice. Advice that will undoubtedly take. However, that only partially alleviates the nagging feeling that I failed myself.

What I have to get through my thick skull is that each failure is actually an opportunity. An opportunity to know what doesn’t work, make some tweaks, and try again. Every successful person in this world has likely failed more than they have succeeded. So it is essential to take this failure and any others as opportunities to improve and learn. That’s the real lesson in all this. Embrace the failures and learn from them.